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"Major help required with graphics card"

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Wed 08/09/04 at 23:06
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
Hi again all.

I'm still having problems with my graphics card and I'm determined to get this sorted.

It is a Hercules 3D Prophet 9800XT running on Windows XP Pro. However, on any benchmark, the graphics card comes up very slow. On PC Pitstop on the 2D Video test, it gets 75 (other 9800XT cards get around 4 times that when you look at the system comparison). When I run AquaMark3, I get a graphics score of about 1,500 - framerates of down as low as 7.7 on some of the tests.

When I look at the various settings, I find that the AGP speed is 4x (despite my card supporting 8x and the BIOS also being set to 8x). Another window (Start > Run > smartgart) shows that PCI Read/Write are on, but AGP Read/Write are off.

Any ideas anyone? Please?
Tue 14/09/04 at 14:36
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
OK, all sorted. Just got on the phone to a tech support guy at Hercules. He got me to check out a few things and it turns out I'd forgotten to install my chipset drivers at all - I thought I just hadn't updated them - oops!!

I installed them from the CD and it's made a hell of a difference. I'm just about to re-run 3dMark03, but having done AquaMark again and getting 3 times my old score...it's looking good...
Tue 14/09/04 at 14:34
Posts: 15,443
Sure. Expect double that for the X800XT and 6800 Ultra.
Tue 14/09/04 at 14:15
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
I've done a complete benchmark and get a score of 5267. Is that any good?
Tue 14/09/04 at 13:53
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
OK....I've just installed 3dMark03. Ignoring the fact that it just closes after the tests run, I just looked at my system details. I've hosted the file (http://www.xymail.co.uk/SI.xml - [URL]http://www.xymail.co.uk/SI.xml) on my web site, but Firefox refuses to run it but it's fine with IE...

Anyway, the bit of the file that concerns me is this:
Total Local Video Memory 256 MB
Total Local Texture Memory 256 MB
Total AGP Memory 0 B

The Local Memory is presumably what I set in the BIOS - and I have set it to 256MB. But why is my AGP Memory 0B? Surely it should be 256MB since its a 256MB card?!?! Help!!
Tue 14/09/04 at 08:58
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
Nope, not yet. Do I need to upgrade the firmware for the BIOS?
Tue 14/09/04 at 02:27
Regular
"bing bang bong"
Posts: 3,040
Have you run 3DMark2003?
Fri 10/09/04 at 08:15
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
Sorry tig - didn't work!

I did what you suggested, reran AquaMark3 and got a score basically the same - GFX Score about 1,500 and Av FPS about 14.

Garin, I'll try your suggestion later. Hope it works. Btw, when I looked on the Asus web site for drivers for my mobo, it had none, so I'll just have to use the drivers on my CD for that. Do I need to update the BIOS as well? My mobo is the K8VSE Deluxe.
Fri 10/09/04 at 03:07
Regular
"Devil in disguise"
Posts: 3,151
I'd guess smartgart is the problem, ATI do provide a utility to remove it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

The common solution to this is to uninstall your drivers for motherboard, graphics card and directx. Use something like Driver Cleaner (http://www.driverheaven.net/cleaner/) to be extra thorough. And then reinstall all of them with the latest versions, it seems to fix alot of people's problems with this.

Of course it could be something else, have a search through google for smartgart problems though. You can find many stories similar to your own.
Thu 09/09/04 at 19:54
Regular
"The mighty GE90-115"
Posts: 5,344
I think its:::::>>>>(Proudly strolls in having experienced this prob myself)

TADA!!

Very simple - go into the properties tab advanced and under Direct 3D set all the sliders to High performance with AA and AF on application preference.
Its not cheating because all those benchmarks you are comparing your card to will have been "benched" in the same way...

If thats not the cause I'll slink away and hide under a big rock in eternal shame...
Thu 09/09/04 at 18:48
Regular
"NULL"
Posts: 1,384
There's no setting for that - only AGP Fast Write which is enabled. I've just updated the drivers and now I can't even set AGP 4x - it just says AGP Off.

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